Interior lining components for motor vehicles are nowadays generally produced from plastic and often have a multi-layered structure composed of at least one support component and one surface layer. These are generally injection-molded plastic components in which molded skins, fabrics, textile materials, leather or artificial leather are used as a surface layer or decorative layer. For this purpose, the laminating material may be placed into a production die and back-molded there with a molten plastics material. In particular in the case of instrument panels, it is conventional for the plastic support and the decorative material to be prefabricated in a preceding working step before then being placed together into a foaming die and back-foamed with a plastic to be foamed thereon, or connected to one another.
A disadvantage of said method is that the plastics material is processed in the molten state, such that the laminating material is subject to intense thermal loading. This can adversely affect the haptic and visual characteristics of the surface layer.
As an alternative to the above-mentioned methods, therefore, in particular in the case of sensitive materials, the so-called laminating technique has been used for many years. Here, firstly, the component is produced in a separate working step, and the surface of the component or a surface portion of the component is subsequently laminated with a laminating material. Here, firstly the rear side of the laminating material or the component surface is treated with a suitable adhesive system. The laminating material is subsequently applied and fixed to the surface or at least one partial region of the surface of the pre-manufactured component.
Laminating processes of said type are described for example in DE 2 925 500 A1, in DE 10 2007 040 879 A1 and in DE 10 2005 042 819 A1.
A disadvantage of the known methods is that, in particular in the case of components of complex shape, the alignment of the laminating material is often associated with problems. Since the alignment of the laminating material on the component surface is generally performed by hand, said method is, per se, already relatively work-intensive. In addition to this, there is the fact that manual work introduces additional sources of defects, in particular when the laminating material must be adapted to special shape contours of the component or if certain positions on the component surface are provided for example for seams in the laminating material. Here, there is always the risk that the haptic and visual impression of the laminated region is adversely affected as a result of slippage of the laminating material.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to specify a method and a device which have advantages over the prior art.